Starfall
by KiwiLombax15
Summary: Her life was hers now, free from Glados. But it was lonely...until the night the stars fell...


It's been some time since I wrote a fanfiction, and since Portal is big for me at the moment, I thought I'd loosen up the gears and crank out this bad boy! I'm not too sure about it but feel free to leave a review and let me know what you think.

Not intended to be Chelley but you can read it that way if you like.

* * *

His orbit had been steadily in decay for some weeks now. He'd spent months locked in orbit around Earth, and every day he drifted closer. The space core had floated the other way, still happily babbling about space. It had long disappeared, swallowed up in the cool depths. And now the Earth loomed larger each day.

His thoughts were conflicted. He missed Earth, yes, but on the other hand...

"Is this gonna hurt?" he muttered to himself as the gravity slowly began to increase, pulling him closer.

"Ooooh, this is gonna hurt, isn't it?"

The pull took over completely.

"Uh oh...Ooooh dear...Oh no..."

A thought flashed across his mind.

_I wonder if I can see her again? I wonder if I can say sorry..._

Then the heat and flames of reentry licked over him and he forgot everything else...

* * *

It was a difficult life. But it was hers. No testing. No turrets. Just her and the field. That first bright day of freedom she had explored the field as far as she could, finding no one. In the wide, endless waves of wheat she could believe she was the last person on the planet. The finding of a deserted farmhouse seemed to confirm this theory. It had wound up saving her life, the small stock of canned food keeping her barely alive when the winter struck with full force, leaving her bundled up in the lone bedroom with what few moldy blankets she could find, clutching the Companion Cube and gritting her teeth against the cold that tore right through her. She held on, though. There would always be worse things she'd survived...

Spring seemed to arrive overnight, filling her with fresh, new determination. The shed revealed tools and bags of seeds. The canned food wouldn't last. She'd worked feverishly over the spring to plant a garden, hampered by her complete ignorance of the subject. But she'd persevered, with a small amount of success. A feral goat had been carefully tamed for its milk. She still never spoke, more out of habit than anything else, but in the privacy of her head she named it Caroline.

Slowly, her body healed, her scars fading over the sun gradually browned her sickly pale skin. The mental scars took rather more time, nightmares and flashbacks leaving her paralyzed with terror, clinging desperately to the Companion Cube as she fought not to scream...

Despite that, she was happy.

Enough.

* * *

_Owowowowowowowowww! Hot! Hot! It's very hot!_

* * *

Midnight spread its sleepy blanket over the field. A nightmare had jolted her from her rest, and she had been unable to return to sleep. It had been a bad one, involving malicious words, and neurotoxin that slowly robbed her of movement as she fought to-

She slammed down on that train of thought. Sometimes stargazing helped, and she slipped outside,

laying back on the fragrant grass. The wheat had regrown from the withered crop of last year, and was only now beginning to turn gold. She closed her eyes and let the sighing of the wind in the wheat soothe her nightmares away...

And a light seared through her closed lids.

* * *

_Argh-ow-hot-hot-hot!_

* * *

She sat bolt upright, eyes widening in fear as a light streaked overhead, lighting up the night. Instinctively, she shot to her feet and turned to run as the light grew closer to her house-

"_If the Enrichment Center is currently being bombarded with fireballs, meteorites, or other objects from space, please avoid unsheltered testing areas wherever a lack of shelter from space-debris DOES NOT appear to be a deliberate part of the test."_

She picked up speed, more to escape her flashback than anything else, diving into her bedroom, pulling the Companion Cube under the bed with her as the house was rocked to its foundations by the impact, rattling the windows. A glance outside showed a fiery glow, and she remained where she was that night, mentally scolding herself for her moment of weakness. _I'm not there anymore now. No more tests. They can't hurt me anymore. It's a meteor, nothing more..._

* * *

_That hurt...wow, that hurt...wasn't expecting it to hurt that much...I'm...going to power down for a bit..._

* * *

The next morning dawned chill and misty, fog just beginning to lift as she set out to investigate the crash site. The Companion Cube was left behind that day. She didn't think she'd be long anyway.

It had landed a fairly short walk away, a deep crater, scorched black around the edges. Burned wheat stretched in all directions.

Carefully, she peeked over the lip of the crater. The _thing _in the center was very worse for wear, but still recognizable. The grey metal burned black. The glass optics, currently dimmed. The round body, only slightly larger than a basketball.

_A core._

For one chilling moment she considered fleeing, just running and never stopping. Then the optics flickered on and she froze. She knew that eye, knew that shade of deep blue...

The core groaned.

"Ooooh, that wasn't fun. Not fun _at all. _I mean, WOW that was painful. About...about an 8? Approximately? On the pain scale I mean..."

She slowly began to slide down the walls of the crater, eyes fixed on the core. It slowly swiveled its optic towards her.

"Is...is that you? It is you! I-I can't believe it! After all this time and I find you first bloody time, oh this is AMAZING! Wow, you are... you are looking pretty good actually, very nice, very healthy. I, oh wow, I have so much to say to you! I imagine you don't want to hear it though, hardly surprising. I did...Um...I did make a prat of myself there. Not going to lie, all my fault there. Sorry, is what I'm trying to say, I really am..."

His babbling passed over her, her mind frozen with shock. Only one thing registered...

"...Wheatly..." Her voice was harsh and quiet from years of disuse, but it was there.

"E-excuse me...? Did...did you just...? I was not expecting that, to be honest. Just, ah...just goes to show that at the end of the day, people with brain damage are the real heroes. Hows that, um...how's that working out for you there?"

She stared at him, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Her shoulders began to shake as she struggled to rein herself in. She couldn't help it. His response had been so daft, so clueless, so essentially _Wheatly _that it touched a part of her long since unused.

"Are you alright?"

She lost it.

Wheatly blinked at her as she threw her head back and laughed. Her laugh was croaky and painful, but it softened as she warmed to it, becoming rich and full, ringing through the field as she hugged Wheatly to her and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Wheatly slowly joined in, confused but pleased at her happiness. Only to feel her laughter slowly changing into sobs, fierce, wracking sobs that shook her whole body.

"Love? Is something...? Somethings wrong, isn't it, I can tell, what with the, ah, the tears and...it's OK, love...Everything's OK..."

Her legs gave out and she sank down, shuddering with pent up misery, releasing every tear she never had in Aperture, every emotion she'd forced down behind a blank face. It was too much, far too much. Months of loneliness now with an end in sight. She had clung to the Companion Cube in her isolation to prevent madness, and now...

"Wheatly..."

"It's alright. It's OK. It won't happen again, I promise"

"Wheatly..."

"I'm sorry, Chell...I really am...I'm so sorry...never again...never again..."

"...Wheatly..."

* * *

It took an hour for her to cry herself out, to unleash every pent up toxin. For a time after, she remained still, hugging the core and staring into space, before rising slowly to her feet, making her way back to her house.

"I really have to say, it is _great _to be back. Thought I was going to go mad with boredom out there, just me and that bloody space core, space space space all the time, it was driving me 'round the bend! Oh, but I'm glad to see you, so glad to put all that unpleasantness behind us. We, ah...we all good?"

"Yes." Her throat still hurt, but it was easing.

She gently placed him on the table, carefully wiping off the soot and dirt. His optic flicked to the corner of the room, where the Companion Cube rested.

"Whats that over there?"

"That?" She followed his gaze. "It's just a cube. That's all it ever was...just a cube." She sat down opposite him and smiled.

"So what's space like?"


End file.
